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The Juneau-Douglas City Museum recently acquired new art by five local artists - Dan DeRoux, Rie Muñoz, Salty Hanes, Trevor Gong and Ella Bentley - through the Rasmuson Art Acquisition Fund. These pieces will be on exhibit Jan. 2-31 in the museum's Recent Acquisitions Exhibit.

Applications made to the Rasmuson Art Acquisition Fund for these works will be featured in this and next week's Neighbors. The following is information on DeRoux's and Muñoz's pieces. Look for more on Hanes', Gong's and Bentley's pieces on Dec. 19.

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Daniel DeRoux

"The Invention of the 2 Cycle Engine" and "Unusual Migration Patterns"

The Juneau-Douglas City Museum has two pieces by Daniel DeRoux in its collection, a small pastel drawing entitled "Midtown Bovines" from 1979, and "The Doge's First Potlatch," a painting purchased through the Rasmuson Art Initiative in 2005.

Born in 1951 in Juneau, DeRoux has, except for six years of his life, painted in Juneau. His work is in the collection of the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, the Smithsonian Permanent Collection, the Morris Museum in Atlanta and many museums in Alaska. He has exhibited and won awards in many national and international competitions.

Most recently, DeRoux was awarded the Alaska State Council's 2008 Governor's Award for the Arts. He also has just completed two "1 percent for art" commissions in Alaska. "Focus on Statehood" is a mural commissioned by the city of Anchorage for the Linny Picallo parking garage and is comprised of 512 individual paintings that form the likeness of Alaska statehood icons Bob Atwood, Bill Egan, Bob Bartlett, Ernest Gruening and many other leaders who were proponents of statehood.

DeRoux also recently completed another "1 percent for art project" for the Juneau Thunder Mountain High School. "The Encryption Wall" was inspired by an art piece commissioned by the Central Intelligence Agency on the East Coast that contained a secret code.

"I thought it would be great to encourage students to look into history and the sciences and the arts and all these different various fields to try to flush out what this symbol means," DeRoux said. "It's more of a broad educational game. ... Usually I like to have something fun in it. I like there to be humor in it so people can enjoy it and look at an Alaskan art theme that is not just a straight or, I don't want to say boring - I want it to have a little humor and life in it."

Kesler Woodward, artist and Alaska art historian, writes in his Web site blog about a visit to Juneau where he saw "The Doge's First Potlatch."

"It was also wonderful to visit old Juneau friends, among them one of the first artists I met in Alaska, who almost 30 years later is still one of the best," Woodward writes. "Dan DeRoux's paintings never cease to amaze me. They are the product of perhaps the most fertile painterly imagination I've ever known. Mixing portraits of friends, hommages to and take-offs of work by Alaskan masters, and settings borrowed from the paintings of European masters from the Renaissance to the 20th century, Dan's paintings delight one's senses, wits and sometimes even one's conscience. Often funny, always beautifully executed and unfailingly original, they are never just clever one-liners. Beyond their easy, accessible wit, they reward slow, thoughtful examination and rumination with not only a wealth of subtle detail, but with insightful commentary on the iconic work of artists in Alaska and the world as on the human condition."

The museum will acquire two of DeRoux's pieces, "The Invention of the 2 Cycle Engine" and "Unusual Migration Patterns."

"The Invention of the 2 Cycle Engine" is classic DeRoux, as he takes a scene from art history or history and scrambles it. By doing this, he captures our gaze in the mechanics of the picture and coaxes us to think a little more closely about our understanding of history and art. In this painting, the viewer can't help but wonder, "who gave who technology, and how did this exchange really take place?"

"Unusual Migration Patterns" is a painting about the issue of global warming, which has been on the forefront of people's minds.

"There is a feeling of watching a disaster occuring in slow motion" DeRoux said. "The toxins and carbon of America, Russia and China have set foot on our snowbank. I just have to imagine Robinson Crusoe, 'Someone else lives here ... .' What is the shelf life of the ice shelf? Has it expired? Will Kaktovik be the next Venice? What will happen to the pipeline when the permafrost melts from underneath it? Unusual weather patterns?"

"The Invention of the 2 Cycle Engine" is owned by the artist and has not been shown or won any awards. "Unusual Migration Patterns" is owned by the artist and is on exhibit in Anchorage at Jens, a restaurant. This piece has not won awards or been published.

Rie Muñoz

"Star Hill"

The museum owns four original works and one print by Juneau-based artist Muñoz. These works were accomplished in the mid-1960s to the late-'70s. Muñoz executed the abstract painting that was developed into an 8-by-12-foot stained-glass window that is housed at the museum.

Born in 1921, Muñoz studied art at Washington and Lee University in Virgina, and at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. In 1951, she moved to Juneau and has traveled and lived in a variety of small Alaska communities.

Muñoz has a permanent home in Juneau and Tenakee Springs and travels throughout Alaska and the United States. Her artwork is carried by galleries throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Norway, Japan, England and Holland. For more than 57 years she has been an active professional artist who draws her inspiration from the Alaska people and its environment.

Solo exhibits include the Alaska State Museum (1971, 1976 and 2006), Anchorage Historical and Fine Arts Museum (1971 and 1978), Charles and Emma Frye Art Museum in Seattle (1978, 1981, 1983, 1992 and 1999).

In 1994, Muñoz's work traveled to six Oregon Art Galleries. Muñoz was commissioned by the League of Women Voters to design its 75th annual poster in 1995, and was commissioned by the state of Alaska to design its Heirloom Marriage Certificate. She also has been commissioned by then-governor-elect Frank Murkowski to design his inauguration poster.

In May 1999, Muñoz received an honorary doctorate of humanities award from the University of Alaska Southeast and in September 2000 she was named Artist of the Year at the Pacific Rim Art Exhibition in Seattle. Muñoz opened her own gallery in Juneau in 1992. The gallery has published more than four books of her artwork through the years. Her work can be seen in stained glass, tapestry, original watercolor and prints.

Muñoz's artwork is said to reflect an interest in day-to-day activities of village life such as whaling, fishing, berry picking, children at play, as well as her love for folklore and legends, and is colorful, carefree, unpretentious and full of life. Her work is unmistakable.

In the Juneau Empire in 2000, Don Peagues, who met Muñoz 50 years ago, talked about their first meeting in 1951 when she stepped onto the steamship dock and declared Juneau her new home. Peagues remembered that Muñoz held a variety of jobs while she pursued her art and in the early days was known as a realistic mural painter. Peagues remembered when she began moving away from realism.

"It was different from anybody else," Peagues said. "We'd never seen anything like her style before. I've seen copycats since, but when she came out with that style we'd never seen anything like it, the way she portrays people and their settings."

Muñoz said she developed her style when she gave up oil paints and began working in watercolors.

"I used to paint realistically when I painted oils," Muñoz said. "But they were boring, honestly. Then someone introduced me to casein paint. It's cheaper than oil, and you paint on paper, which is cheaper than canvas."

Muñoz found painting with watercolors gave her a looser, freer style.

"I do paintings of all sorts of people," she said. "I sketch them, but I never try for a likeness. Usually they're somewhat plump, because they're more fun to draw than skinny people."

Muñoz's original watercolor, "Starr Hill," is a depiction of one of Juneau's historic neighborhoods and Muñoz's longtime home in her mature and signature style. Starr Hill is nestled into Mount Roberts and is known for its beloved well-worn Mount Roberts trailhead.

"Starr Hill" was completed in 2004 in Juneau and is exhibited at The Rie Muñoz Gallery in Juneau. The work has not been published or won awards. The artwork is owned by the artist and has been in her possession since it was created.